And Stars Could be Brighter
by Fuuga Kumi
Summary: Xion, and the mysteries contained within her own head, as revealed in part by a simple seashell. one-shot


**And Stars Could be Brighter**

**

* * *

**

Xion holds the seashell against her ear, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. There's a soft _whoosh_ sound, and she half imagines she can smell the salt in the air. "Sometimes, I think this is where my heart is hiding." she confides in Roxas.

"In a seashell?" He scrunches his nose up.

Her answering laugh bubbles out like gentle waves caressing the shore. "No silly, the _ocean_. It just feels like

_what was your home like?_

...familiar." She swallows, feeling slightly unnerved by the words tumbling through her head. It's not her, but was it once?

Roxas has the shell now, pressing it against the side of his head and wears a look of utter concentration. He perks up suddenly, eyes widening as something inside clicks into place. "Hey, I think you're right."

He cocks his head to the side, "I don't think I've ever been to where you get these," he motions to the shell, "but I'd like to see it too...

_Along with any other worlds out there_

Xion!"

It's only when she opens her eyes to see nothing but sky that Xion begins to realize she had pitched forward. Roxas is leaning over her, his ice-cream half melted in one hand, eyes wide. "Are you okay?"

She nods, too shocked to try and speak. There's a bitter taste of familiarity edging its way down her throat, and it's frightening.

She sits her handful of shells next to her place atop the clock tower, like a fourth person. Xion tries not to think things like _but there were only ever three_, because it makes her head swim and her tummy feel wrong.

Axel is standing behind her, she knows he is even though he's as silent as the air itself. It's strange, she thinks, for someone whose very essence is fire, something live and constantly moving to be so _still_.

Roxas isn't here yet, still out on some mission that's keeping him from his friends. It's just the two of them and Axel won't sit. He leans against the clock tower, and Xion can't help it if her shoulders tense a little.

She doesn't like being with Axel alone, without Roxas between them to smile and keep the conversation rolling. They're both too quiet on their own, and Xion can't help but think that Axel doesn't really like her. It's nothing he's done, per say, but when she closes her eyes his expression is sharper than it should be.

It's a nervous habit, this fiddling with things to avoid idle hands. Xion can recognize that, even as she turns one of the shells over and over in her hand. She's studying it in an obsessive fashion, like it's the most enchanting thing she's ever seen, this little delicate fan.

"What do you have there, Xion?" Axel's voice is so unexpected that she jerks to attention, offering a timid smile and eyes that are too wide to feign nonchalant.

He's propped against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and one leg bent. Xion blinks and in that instance she sees white-washed hallways, the cloying scent of Nothing that is far removed from the way Never Was smells.

"Shells," she manages to say quietly.

He quirks an eyebrow at her, the hint of a smile playing at the edge of mouth like a hidden ember. "You carry them around with you?" And she has trouble remembering why she had been afraid of Axel only moments ago. He was her friend, the three of them best friends.

She smiles easier this time, the storm that had been building inside suddenly quelled. "It's silly, isn't it? But they feel like a

_lucky charm! Be sure to bring it back to me!_

...comfort, like home." Her smile is shaky again and the shell, held too loosely in her hands, slips the distance down the clock tower to clatter helplessly against the pavement.

Xion tries not to think of omens and refuses to ask Axel if it feels colder all of a sudden, or is it just her?

* * *

End Note: This was originally written for the kh_drabble, challenge 230 "whisper". This is the unpruned, longer version that I took a certain liking to and decided to upload it as it's own piece.


End file.
